Rubio benefitting from small donors more than Crist, Meek

The Center for Responsive Politics finds that U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio is being "propelled by enthusiastic support from small donors."

In Florida, individual donors account for about 95 percent of the more than $10 million in the war chest of Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, who last week declared he would skip the GOP primary and run as an independent for the Sunshine State's open Senate seat. Yet less than 1 percent of this overall haul comes from small donors who give $200 or less, the threshold used by the Federal Election Commission for itemized disclosure.

Rubio, a Republican whose bid forced Crist out of the GOP field has, by contrast, raised 37 percent of his funds from donors who gave $200 or less. Rubio, overall, has raised $7 million through March, and about 96 percent of his campaign funds have come from individual donors who gave any amount.

Democrat Kendrick Meek, meanwhile, has raised $5.7 million through March, with about 80 percent coming from individuals -- and 7 percent of the overall amount coming from small donors. Of these three candidates, Meek has raised the most from political action committees, at 20 percent, while Crist has raised 5 percent of his money from PACs and Rubio has raised about 1 percent of his funds from these special interest groups.